Justin Hartfield & Yuri Vanetik: Time to sensibly regulate marijuana

July 9, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

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U.S. Office of Air and Marine, agent Jake Dreher stands over a drug smuggler on the bank of the Rio Grande River at the U.S.-Mexico Border on April 11, 2013 in Mission, Texas. Agents with helicopter support from the U.S. Office of Air and Marine broke up a marijuana smuggling operation from Mexico into Texas. GETTY IMAGES

U.S. Office of Air and Marine, agent Jake Dreher stands over a drug smuggler on the bank of the Rio Grande River at the U.S.-Mexico Border on April 11, 2013 in Mission, Texas. Agents with helicopter support from the U.S. Office of Air and Marine broke up a marijuana smuggling operation from Mexico into Texas. GETTY IMAGES

At a glance

The Marihuana Tax Act was passed in 1937 and made possession of cannabis illegal. It was repealed in 1970. In response, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act as Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970.

Source: Government Printing Office

California and U.S. marijuana policy is a failure because it attempts to treat marijuana like something it isn't. Marijuana is neither a dangerous gateway narcotic (as the drug prohibitionists would argue), nor a true medicine (as medical marijuana advocates would contend).

It's primarily an intoxicant for responsible adult use, just like alcohol is. Unless and until we regulate marijuana as such, we are going to continue to experience a public health and economic crisis in California and nationally.

Medical marijuana has failed as a policy in California simply because marijuana really isn't a medicine. It can be prescribed as one and may have significant medicinal purposes, but that's not what it is primarily.

The history of Prohibition tells us that medical use is not the proper exclusive distribution rationale for an adult-use intoxicant. This country's experience with Prohibition shows that simply letting doctors prescribe an otherwise-illegal intoxicant will only end in disaster, unless the substance is properly regulated.

Colorado, through its Amendment 64, introduced by Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., attempted to tax marijuana similarly to alcohol, without adopting the other key components entailed in regulation of alcohol. The lack of defined standards in the initiative resulted in an eventual legal regime which varied significantly from ideal adult-use intoxicant regulations. Reason Magazine's Jacob Sullum points this out in his recent article "Whatever Happened to Treating Marijuana Like Alcohol." In its final impact, Colorado's legal regime resembles the failed medical marijuana system more than a proper adult-use regulatory scheme. Maine is making an effort to pass a more sweeping regulation – LD 1229 – backed by a bipartisan group of 35 lawmakers. If successful, it will be placed on the November ballot in 2014.

California can again become a beacon for policy innovation, simply by learning from the mistakes of others and its own painful experience. A proper legalization initiative would resemble the current California Alcohol Beverages Control Act – complete with license classes, permit requirements, standards, and tax rates – with each rule set commensurate with existing state rules on alcohol.

Every failure of marijuana policy can be traced to a failure to treat marijuana like the intoxicant that it is. Labeling rules and potency testing, supply-chain management and cultivation standards, strict age-verification from vendors – none of these time-honored hallmarks of alcohol distribution exist for the marijuana industry. If they did, crime and abuse would fall markedly.

If excise and sales taxes were collected on the crop, similar to alcohol, both California and the nation's financial situation would be vastly improved. Jon Gettman has studied and lobbied for marijuana reform. Even based on Gettman's conservative estimates for marijuana cultivation in the state, an excise tax approximate to that for alcohol would yield the state over $5 billion a year. If the federal government were to collect federal excise taxes similarly to how it does on alcohol manufacturers, the resources generated would represent an unbelievable boon.

From a public health perspective, the paucity of scientific information on the effects of cannabis impairment is an avoidable tragedy. Compare this situation with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration field sobriety tests on alcohol impairment, which represent a comprehensive and peer-reviewed index of the latest medical and scientific knowledge on the effects of drinking on the body.

Instead, our federal agents, deploying Rambo-style raid tactics, are putting grandmothers in federal prison for growing medical pot in their back yards. This type of enforcement is expensive and ineffective. Colorado, Washington State, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire are making progress to regulate cannabis in ways inspired by alcohol regulation.

Regulating Marijuana through a framework developed and implemented for alcoholic beverages may not solve the marijuana debate, but it does deliver an economically sound framework that saves money, generates revenue for the state, respects market economics and promotes a responsible and socially cohesive society.

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